Rag time drinks Ava with me

in the pics: pictures from my training village's family, me holding a bunch of LONG beans, a view of the yard area, and TJ the three year old in our family.

03/28
The lights got fixed in the computer lab yesterday. Last night we were using a flashlight to use the computers. I guess my principal had enough of that. Tonight it’s late and the lights are still on in the computer lab.

I finished a book called “Ragtime”…very interesting. A book about white and black and how each is treated differently, even if they have the same intentions, actions. Good descriptions. I wrote down some phrases I liked (well, ones i’d like to Google). One thing I noticed is that this book has the big, the small, many many different things. The other book “The Inheritors” focused in on one group of people very closely. Both books were interesting.

“oratory of powerful ideas”
Excitement rising from the audience
What an embarrassed police force did
White slavery problem
Spiritual adventure of life
Victory of the prostitute
American labor movement set back
To have a man in jail
Courage to live
Great farting country
Sacrament of success
Real truth of their relationship
It is the law of wealth
Challenge to her wit
Ambitions aroused once again
Such feelings of dissatisfaction
Becoming competent and useful
Through its neglect
Alert to unexpected events
As a discarded treasure
Something to stir the anger
I have been a socialist all my life
In the middle of brotherhood
Accept totally the situation in which s(he) found herself
Would that transform their lives
This country will not let me breathe
Fate of the working class
Value of the duplicable event
His genius consisted of
Too dumb to make a good living
Not a single unnecessary second
Fierce intolerant eyes
A lust for order
Monarch of the invisible
Barren reaches of unlimited success
Remind him of his humanity
Not an ounce of wit among them
Maintain the illusions of other men
Colony from the gods
Man of homespun tastes
Coordination of capital resources
Coordination of human resources
Belief in a secret wisdom
No patience with the two dollar words
In his quiet secret games
Surroundings did not awe him/her
Did not act or talk like a colored man
Conflict of their wills
Intensity of expectation
Of all the orators (s)he was the best
Problem that would only adhere to a negro
Assumption of social equality
Out of his constant sorrow
Into a state of solemn joy
Discover a life of genius
One white face looks just like another
Matter of the mad coon
Watchful coon eyes
Invented a barony for himself immigrant power
Alive to every moment
Enormously pleasurable to see the world
Most famous negro


3/21
It feels a little strange sitting around drinking ava with three men from the village called Lalomauga. That was my first time just casually drinking ava. The four times b4 have all been during formal ava ceremonies. This time today, sitting on the mat, trying to catch a few words of meaning, reminded me of sitting in a fale drinking beer with three of the village matais in SAvaià the village where my school is) a few days ago. They were most interested in Asking me about my political opinions—strangely enough. Caught me a little off guard. And my reluctance to name a democratic winner made them more pushy to know my opinion.

“this is a military road” I heard the man say…as we walked across branches to keep from sinking into the swampy mud. I wondered if my grandpa had faced similar obstacles—“military roads” when he was in the military…except I’m not in the military.

I can say now that I will not miss the constant mosquitoes, the rocks on the ground that I twist my ankle on or hyperextend my knee on almost daily.

And the flies, that for some reason like my feet and ankles. At any one time there are between 2 and 6 flies on my feet. I always notice them it’s just that I don’t try to flick/shoo them away anymore.